


i heart dokdo

by loosenoodlepoodledoodle



Series: Intense Adventures [2]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Horror, LGBTQ Themes, Nationalism, Romance, Surreal, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 11:50:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21015323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenoodlepoodledoodle/pseuds/loosenoodlepoodledoodle
Summary: Nayeon wakes up all alone, not knowing where she is. Has she been kidnapped? Where are the others?





	1. Chapter 1

I open my eyes, and I’m lying face down on the floor. The side of my head hurts, not a huge amount but enough that I’d prefer not to leave it untreated. More concerning is my right knee and ankle. I must have hurt them falling down, and they smart just enough that I may not be able to walk or run properly.

I roll over and sit up. I lean back against a glass door, feeling cold. Turning my head and looking up, I see a smudge mark on it. I can only assume I must have run into the door, smacking my head and knocking myself out. I would have thought that would break the glass, though. Or perhaps my entire head.

I look around. I’m sitting at the foot of some stairs. A short hallway ahead of me ends with a set of glass doors identical to the one behind me. Through them stands a building that I presume is part of a set with this one. To my left and right extends a long hallway perpendicular to this one. One wall is lined with windows to the outside, the other with doors and windows to rooms inside. I can tell right away what sort of place this is.

Huh. Why am I in an elementary school?

I get to my feet. The restrooms are nearby, just to the right of the stairs. The light switches don’t work but the overcast sky outside is just bright enough today for me not to need them. I finish up, then wash my hands in the sink. There’s running water, but it’s very cold. I have to dry my hands on my skirt.

I look at myself in the mirror. Without the fluorescents overhead, the image is dull, but I can still see enough. I’m wearing some fashionable version of a high school uniform, marred with dirt. My right knee is scuffed, but I knew that already. What I didn’t know was that I’m sporting a bruise on the side of my face. I don’t think it looks too bad, but the company might flip out a little. Other than that, I still look like me. Still Squirtle!

I try to remember how I got here, or even where here is. Last night (at least I think it was last night) we were on Inkigayo—or was it M Countdown? It bothers me that I can’t figure out which one it is. Regardless, we had won and gone backstage, and…that’s it. Everything else is blank.

Was I really tired last night or something? No, that doesn’t make sense. I mean, I’m tired all the time after shows, but never in the amnesia sort-of-way. This feels more sinister somehow. Like I drank too much, or like I’ve been—

_ (drugged)_

—kidnapped.

A shiver born not of the weather passes through me. But I think I would _know_ if something bad had happened to me…

I leave the restroom. I unlatch the glass door I had leaned against, only to find that it’s chained and padlocked from the outside. Through the glass I can see a third building, though the upper floors on this one are in the midst of having their windows replaced. A long garden fills the narrow space between both buildings.

I turn around and try the other set of doors, but they’re chained up, too. Peering through the glass, I notice the other building is the same way. I turn back to find the third building is as well.

It’s so odd. Why would anyone double lock an elementary school?

It doesn’t matter, though. There’s no way to fit a chain on any of these windows. I unlatch the one nearest the restroom, slide it open and hop through. Now I’m in the garden.

The garden is divided into two halves. To my left, there is a wide brick path, flanked first by two rows of labeled stones, then by low hedges growing almost directly under the window sills. Only a small gap exists between them and the wall, a gap containing in-ground rain gutters, one of which I am awkwardly standing on.

I step away, out into the stone walkway running directly between the two buildings. Above me is the bridge connecting the upper floors of both of them. They’re only three stories high, but the bridge looks dangerous. A child would have difficulty getting over the safety railing, but an adult like me should definitely avoid leaning too far. _If_ I were to go up there, I mean.

Back down towards the left side there is an open area with the school’s recycling shack. It is built up against a high wall that I presume surrounds the entire school. Here it presses against the base of a small hill, but I’m a little surprised. The hill is stony and irregular, barren of trees and almost devoid of grass. They must have accidentally killed everything when they were building this place.

I walk to the other building and peer through the door. There’s some sort of early childhood center to the left, and funnily enough a cooking classroom to the right, but what I’m interested is straight ahead. Through one more set of (again, chained) glass doors is a spartan sort of yard, and the continuation of the high wall. But here, there’s an unfinished mural painted on it. I snicker when I see what it says.

_I love Dokdo_.

Dokdo is a pair of islands surrounded by rocks in the middle of the East Sea, way down in Gyeongbuk Province. There’s a lighthouse, a coast guard station, some scientists, but only like a couple of actual residents. They’re all there just to spite Japan, or something. Honestly, I can’t ever say this out loud in Korea, but I’ve never understood the weird nationalistic obsession with Dokdo. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should let them go, or anything like that. But really, who the hell cares so much about some nearly worthless, ordinarily deserted islands? For goodness sake, I remember in grade school English class we’d practice sentences like, _“What did you do during summer vacation?” “I went to Dokdo. It was fun.”_

Like, really? No we didn’t!

I turn around to check out the other half of the garden. It is much darker, almost creepily so. Thick ivy or vines grow over some kind of wooden latticework. It blocks most of the dim gray daylight. Why a place for kids would have it is a mystery to me, but then I guess the shade must be nice in summer when every spot in sunlight in Korea turns to boiling hell.

Down at the far end the wall wraps around and meets what can only be the gymnasium and cafeteria building. Bridges connect it with the rest of the school, and there is an outdoor set of sinks built against the high wall. They’re there because there’s no way all the restrooms in the school could accommodate everyone washing their hands at the same time. Gotta be efficient—

Someone is sitting on the ground next to one of the sinks. Tzuyu, I think—no, I’m sure it’s her.

My heart skips a beat. I wasn’t expecting someone to be right there! I calm down a little, then start walking towards her. She hasn’t reacted to me. Maybe she’s asleep? She’s sitting cross-legged, leaning against the wall. I think her eyes are closed.

It is much colder in the shade of the ivy. With this uniform, I’ve got two layers covering my upper body, but my legs are exposed. I can see Tzuyu’s solved this problem by draping the jacket over her legs. I wonder how her head feels. It can’t be comfortable leaning off to the side like that.

I stop walking. What if she’s been drugged? I mean, that would explain how I got here. Maybe we’ve all been kidnapped, and the kidnappers hid us in some abandoned school? Suddenly a shiver runs through me that isn’t caused by the cold.

I step forward, calling out to her. “Tzuyu, are you alright?”

She doesn’t react. I don’t know why I’m so worried.

“Tzuyu, it’s Nayeon. Wake up, please.” My voice sounds too loud, too strained. What is wrong with me?

I’m close enough to see her eyes are slightly open. They must have drugged her with something strong. Why would they leave us both here like this?

Are they watching us?

I stop again, this time underneath the second set of bridges. I’m only few meters away from her now. To my left is another chained entrance to the last building. To my right is a sort of brick “street” running between the other buildings on that side. I look down that way, and spot part of a swing set and the athletic field. Far down at the other end of the field stands more of the wall. I am confused; there are no buildings past it, nor any trees or mountains.

Are we high up or something? But that can’t be true, I’m sure I can hear the sea…

I look back at Tzuyu. She hasn’t moved at all. She looks pale, and I start to think I’m going to have to break into the nurse’s office to help her. Then it occurs to me how odd it is that she’s got that jacket over her legs. If she’s been drugged, who would’ve covered her up like that?

The answer is obvious. No one else did it, she had to have done it herself. When she was still awake.

I inch closer, but I keep quiet. Something is wrong here, and I’m making myself sick with worry. I can see she’s filthy, much more so than I. Her fingertips are nasty, and a droplet of darkened spittle befouls the corner of her mouth. More dark spots dot her blouse, and even more of it stains the brickwork she’s leaning against—

She’s sitting in a dry pool of blood.

A pitiful sound emerges from my throat. I reach her. She’s lost most of her fingernails, presumably from extracting some grossly inadequate price from her assailant. I check her pulse, but I know it’s no use. She’s cold and still and lifeless. Her eyes are dark and glassy, dilated. She’s not stiff, but I don’t know how to interpret that. I can’t see what killed her, so I pull back her jacket and nearly gag.

She has a horrible wound. Someone stabbed her all the way through.

I reel, collapsing into a fetal ball. I rock back and forth, sobbing. I can’t believe this is happening. Why Tzuyu? And are the others here? Are they dead, too, waiting for me to find them? Waiting for me to join them?

Am I all alone here?

I can barely whimper, “I’m sorry this happened to you,” but Tzuyu doesn’t say anything.

I start to crawl away, but this only makes my knee hurt more. I get on my feet, and see that I’m going to have to clean the wound up. I seem to glide back under the vines, as if in a surreal trance. Before I know it I’ve climbed back into the center building, latched the window, and reentered the girls’ restroom. After a moment’s thought, I latch the restroom door from the inside. It’s made of glass, only partly frosted, so anyone walking by can still look in. But I am eager for any false reassurances right now.

I check every single stall, but no one else is here. I clean myself up the best I can, then lock myself in the handicapped toilet. It is farthest from the door, and has a window. It’s opaque, so you have to open it to see out, but at least it’ll be obvious if a shadow falls on it. There is a gap under the stall door, so I have to either sit on the toilet or on the floor between it and the wall if I don’t want to be seen. I choose the latter, then, for the leg room and back support.

I calm down little by little, but I cannot truly relax. I wish I could hide in here forever, or at least until rescue, but something tells me that’s not going to work. I have access to water, soap, and toilets in here, but no food. I’m only a little hungry right now, but that won’t stay the same for long. Besides, whoever dumped me and murdered Tzuyu could presumably come back and finish me off.

I can’t sit here any longer. I get up and open the window to peer out. There’s a garden on this side, too, but much more subdued. There are flower beds, but most are empty and the ones that aren’t are little more than graves. There’s a storage shed down to my right, up against the same section of wall as the recycling shack. Looking the other way, the “street” between buildings ends at a set of doors for the gym. Almost directly above me is this side’s connecting bridge, although it is nicer than the others because the span it crosses is interior space.

Hmm. Inside or outside? On the one hand, there’s more room to run out there. On the other, I can use any ground window to escape this building, but only this one if I need to get back inside in a hurry.

The illusion of safety decides it for me. I shut the window and latch it, then unlatch the stall and restroom doors. Out in the hall nothing seems to have changed. I look down at either end. There are three stairwells in this building. One is here in the middle with me, and the other two are at the far ends. I arbitrarily pick a direction to go in first: towards the gym.

I pass an herb room, a check-up room, and the school’s museum. All are locked up tight, and I can’t see much through their darkened windows. The museum in particular is huge, taking up half the length of the corridor. Two fancy lanterns guard its entrance, and there is a plaque written in _hanja_, not _hangeul_. The whole thing feels enigmatic, but I’ve no reason to break in there so I ignore it and move on.

There’s a simple sliding door here leading to outside. I look through the window next to it. The angle is wrong, so I can’t see Tzuyu’s face but her legs are visible. She hasn’t moved at all. I unlatch the door but am not surprised to find that it won’t open.

The stairs here are half as wide as the others, almost like they were added as an afterthought. I climb them warily but encounter no one. This half of the second floor corridor contains the school computer labs, but they lack any hardware. Far down the hall is the English department, and it is full of boxes and furniture. Why are they out here? Why aren’t they in the rooms?

I start to wonder if any students have ever attended this school.

I head up to the top floor to be sure. My suspicions are soon confirmed. All the rooms up here look like homerooms, but they are empty. They haven’t even been labeled yet! I should count myself lucky that at least the plumbing works, but it bothers me that I haven’t seen any telephones yet. I certainly don’t have my cellphone, and since it’s pretty much beyond a doubt at this point that we were kidnapped from backstage, if the others are here they won’t have theirs either.

I get impatient, wishing to finish this search as soon as possible. I call out, saying, “Hello?” and “Is anyone there?” nervously, but I sound stupid so I stop. It seems bad luck to say specific names, too. What if I say someone’s name and they’re already dead? I know it doesn’t make sense, but the thought of it makes me shiver. Anyway, nobody answers me, except the wind, the sea roaring from somewhere nearby, and my own lame echo.

I make for the bridge connecting this building to the one I saw from the restroom. I am thwarted by a large fire door. A quick check reveals the lower half of the bridge to be similarly blocked. Meanwhile, the doors to the exterior bridge on the other side are all chained, too. Back to square one, I suppose.

I return to the restroom window downstairs, open it and hop through. After closing it again, I take a look around. This other building in front of me is much more different from the others than at first glance. For one thing, it’s taller, four stories instead of three. The brickwork is darker, ivy clings to it in parts, and the style just seems older to me. Like, maybe even from before the war.

It’s also not as long as the other two buildings. Maybe that’s why it’s taller. I already know the doors in front of me are chained, but I don’t want to do a full circuit of the building if I can avoid it. Hopefully someone left a window open, or maybe I’ll feel gutsy enough to smash one in with a rock.

I go right, towards the high outer wall and away from the gym. There’s another entrance here, shaped like those stoops I’ve seen in pictures of New York. It’s the perfect place for students to hang out between classes. I can already tell I’m not getting those doors open, but there’s no bridge overhead on this side. Instead, there’s an overhang, the kind that keeps the stoop dry in the rain but also allows you to easily install air conditioner units.

The brickwork on either side of the stoop goes up pretty high. I think I’m tall enough that if I get on top of those, I can pull myself onto the overhanging bit. Most importantly, I can see from where I’m standing right now that the window mere inches above it is unlatched.

I check the other ground level windows, just to be sure I’m not going to risk a sprained ankle for nothing, then make my assault. The stoop is easy to scale, but I have difficulty pulling myself over the top of the overhang. For a second everything is in doubt, and I think I’m going to fall down and break my neck, but I’ve gotten enough of myself over the top that I manage to slide forward to safety.

The top of the overhang is covered in moss. The drier bits are nice and soft, but the bulk of it is damp and slimy, and right now it’s soaking through the front of my clothes. I get back on my feet and turn to the window. I only have a little trouble opening it. It’s very dark inside, so my eyes have no time to adjust, and I never see the drop.

I land hard, legs buckling as I crumple. I pitch forward, sacrificing my hands to keep from smashing my face. The palm of my right hand smacks into the floor, as the knuckles of my left do the same. I immediately have to lie down flat, as the pain has reached my limits. My knuckles and wrist are throbbing, my left knee stings while my right knee has doubled in agony, and my feet are a terror. I wheeze and moan, and after a minute roll over onto my back. I lay there crying for I don’t know how long, but I must not have broken any bones because it eventually subsides to something barely tolerable.

Lying on my back, I can see up to the still-open window. The door out to the stoop is below it, in front of my feet. The stairs serving this side of the building are in a completely different alignment from any I’ve seen in a school before. They’re off to my left, perpendicular to and offset from the doorway itself. For some dumb reason the second-floor landing doesn’t extend out to the wall. It ends some two meters short, which is probably why the window wasn’t locked. You’d need to go up there with a ladder to reach it.

I continue to lay there for a while longer, then I’m ready to renew my search. I have to move slowly, or else it’ll hurt too much. To my right is a wooden sliding door. There’s no chain, but it’s latched from the other side. There’s no sign on it, so I wonder what room is back there. Next, there’s a set of glass doors leading into the kindergarten, opposite the stoop doors. I can’t get in there either, but at least I can see in. It’s not fit to be used in its current state, but at least it is furnished. Finally, there’s another set of restrooms, much dingier than the ones in the other building. Still, there’s soap and cold water, and paper towels, so I waste as much time as I dare cleaning myself up.

When I’m done, all that is left to do is climb the stairs, but here is where I am truly bothered. You see, I’m on the ground floor, and there are steps leading up…and steps leading down. As far as I know, Korean schools don’t really have basements, per se. Sure, I’ve seen doors behind and under stairs, but I’ve never seen them open and I’ve only ever thought of them as Harry Potter cupboards. But to have steps leading down, in plain view?

Curiosity compels me to take a look. Maybe there are rooms down there, and not just smelly old pipes. Could the others be hiding down there, hopefully alive and not dead and waiting for me to join them?

The metal handrails are cool to the touch, soothing some of my hurts. I reach the landing and turn, only to stop in wonder. There’s a black metal door below me, very different from what I expected. It’s not exactly ornate, but something about it seems…complex. It is also larger than average. It has a tarnished brass doorknob with a keyhole in the center.

I approach the door, but I wait to touch it. Something about it intimidates me. I can see a little bit of rust along the bottom edge. After a moment, I press my ear against it. I hear nothing.

The doorknob shifts a bit when I try it, but otherwise won’t budge. Oh well. Once I find the teacher’s office or administration, I’m sure I’ll be able find a raft of keys, as long as someone else didn’t steal them. But I don’t think I’ll need to come back here.

I breathe a sigh (of relief?) and turn around. Climbing back up the stairs is much harder than going down them. It is made all the more difficult by the near heart attack I get when I hear the sound of the doorknob behind me.

I slowly turn around again. There, the doorknob is moving a little. It seems like the door is too, like someone or something is pushing against it. They must not be able to unlock it from their side, which confuses me. Maybe it’s nothing? Maybe that window I opened upstairs created a draft, so it’s only the air pushing through, shaking the door. No, that doesn’t make sense. I’d be able to feel it, and I think there would be a whooshing sound from under the door.

I step back down and press my ear against the door again. I guess it sounds like someone is behind it, struggling to open it. I tentatively call out.

“Hello? Is someone there?”

The door and doorknob instantly stop moving. Whoever it is, they can hear me, but they’re not saying anything. That’s when I notice the funk emanating from under the door. It smells like a thousand years of mold and damp, leavened with, I don’t know, WD-40? Whatever it is, it is unpleasant enough that I think that even if I could open the door, I’d instantly die of black lung.

I call out one more time, and then I knock on the door. The person behind it responds with a body slam, scaring the hell out of me, and I reel back. None of my friends would do that, it must be one of the kidnappers. The poor bastard must have locked himself in his hideout, only to slowly cough up bits of his lungs. Serves him right. But I can’t stay here and find out if he’s strong enough to break the door down.

Adrenaline dulls the pain as I vault up the stairs. My bum left leg betrays me a couple of times, but I get back up almost instantaneously. I don’t think about which floor I’m on, I’m just trying to put as much distance between me and him as I can. I hardly notice that one floor is blocked off by a metal gate when suddenly the stairs end. I’ve reached the top, and the landing up here by the door to the roof is set up like a makeshift office. I can already see that the roof door is locked, so I cower under the desk for who knows how long.

I listen carefully, expecting to hear the door breaking, heavy footsteps of doom, even maniacal laughter, but all there is is the wind. And the pounding of my heart.

While I’m down there, my adrenaline starts to crash and my various pains return. Being cramped like this makes them worse, so I get up. This “room” at the top of the stairs has four walls. The door outside behind me has no window, but each of the other three walls has a large circular one. I’m surprised at how decorative they look. I can’t see anything but the sky out of two of them, they’re too far above the steps for me to get the right angle. But the last one is right next to the landing. I have to sit on top of the desk and lean out a little over the safety railing, but I can see something. Nothing useful, though, it’s just the top of the hill the outer wall is built against. There are pathetic tufts of grass here and there, and a seriously bored-looking black goat is wandering around chewing them up.

I don’t know why, but that goat calms me down a lot. I think if I make it out of here alive, I’m going to have to go pet that thing.

The only furniture up here besides the desk and a chair is a small cabinet. I check them both, but they are disappointingly empty. The only thing left to do is to go back downstairs.

I stop at the fourth floor. Here (and on the third floor, as it turns out) there’s no gap between the left-hand wall and the landing. That peculiar design choice was limited to the second floor. However there is a security barrier blocking any movement forward, although it does not block my view. Across and to my right is the same type of sliding door I encountered on the first floor, though this one is wide open. Unfortunately I am not in the right place to see much beyond it. I can only tell that the hallway is well-lit by cold daylight. Assuming each floor has the same layout, there are probably toilets to my immediate right. That leaves only the end of the hallway here as a mystery. That and the mess on the floor.

What I surmise was once a large, antique mirror is slumped across the hall. It would normally be too tall to fit that way, but it does now because its wooden frame is smashed and broken. Shards of silvered glass are scattered about, and the mirror must be lying on top of something else because there is a kind of hump on the far side—

I grip the security barrier tightly when I see the bloody hand. I’m afraid I’ll unwittingly fall backwards and break my neck. I can see nothing else of the victim, so I don’t know who it is. I try to give them (who am I kidding, I know it’s a her) more scrutiny, but all it reveals is blood hidden in the shadows under the wreckage. I do notice one other thing, though. The hump the body creates seems too small, like it’s only half a body down there.

Where could the rest of her be?

The third-floor barrier turns out to be shut, but not locked. It makes a hideous screech when I push it open. The sliding door is locked, the restrooms accessible and usable. Down the hall is a normal-looking classroom and some kind of larger event room. Both are unlocked and useless to me.

I pause at the sliding door. All the other doors in this wing were unlocked, so the pattern is broken. Only this one is shut. Maybe someone is on the other side? And maybe they’re (she’s) a friend? It wouldn’t make sense for it to be a bad guy, otherwise they would have let out whoever’s haunting the basement.

I knock a few times. No one responds, but this time I try persistence. After a minute or so (which feels like an eternity) I finally hear what could be soft footsteps approaching. They cease, and I try “Hello?” again.

“Nayeon!” says a familiar voice, and I hear the latch removed and the door squeak open. I step through and throw myself around Momo, trying not to cry.


	2. Chapter 2

After we embrace, I step back and take a look at her. She’s in much better condition than I am, though she’s not wearing her uniform jacket. She’s also carrying a baseball bat.

“What happened? Do you remember anything? Have you seen the others? Do you know…um…about…” I trail off.

Momo puts her finger to my lips. “Let’s talk somewhere else. This hallway creeps me out.”

Her assessment rings true. The hall is much wider than it needs to be, about as wide as a whole classroom. To my left next to the door I just passed through is a sink with a large mirror. Light streams in from windows on the adjoining wall, and I can see the top of the building I woke up in. But stacks of furniture and piles of boxes run most of the length of the hallway, enshrouding it.

Momo leads me with her free hand. I can see to my right that some of the classrooms are actually labeled this time, for grade six. Halfway down the hall Momo stops at a teacher’s lounge. Across from it is another set of stairs, just as misplaced as the one that nearly killed me. It’s next to the bridge, and I see this side of the fire door. Finally, the remaining rooms are all labeled for fifth grade, and the far wall is covered top to bottom in a giant mirror.

Momo sees my reaction. “Yeah, I don’t like it, either.” She takes me into the lounge.

There are two small sofas and a coffee table. A large cabinet stands to my left, next to the door. Across from me, under the window, is a sink and a desk. There’s other assorted junk, including of all things a kerosene heater, but there’s food and water bottles, too.

Momo closes the door behind me and sits down. Something worries me.

“Can we lock it?”

She shakes her head. “There’s no latch on this side, and the loop for the padlock is on the outside.”

I look at the cabinet. “Can we move this?”

Momo frowns. “Why? It’ll just get in our way, and it won’t stop anyone from getting in here.”

I shift nervously on my feet, then I decide to sit down, too. I’m about to take the sofa opposite her when I change my mind and plop down next to her. Our thighs touch, and I take her arm in mine. Then I place her arm around my shoulders while I wrap myself tight around her waist. I nuzzle her neck; it feels so good to snuggle with her.

“Let me do something with those filthy clothes,” says Momo.

She slips out of my grip, stands up, and pulls me to my feet. She unbuttons my jacket, pulls it off, and hangs it on an old-fashioned hat tree in the corner. Her jacket is already there. Then she unhitches my skirt and takes it off. I’m left standing in my blouse and the kind of shorts we wear so as not to flash anyone during performances.

I look at Momo expectantly.

“Okay, Nayeon?” she asks.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I turn away, hoping she doesn’t see me blush. I’m so ashamed, I don’t know where the idea even came from amidst today’s horrors. But I thought she wasn’t going to stop at my outerwear.

Why does that excite me all of a sudden?

I walk over to the window. I have a good view of the athletic yard out front, though the sky is getting darker. There’s an unfinished playground near the kindergarten, and the high wall goes all the way to the school gate on the far side. I still can’t see any buildings nearby, but there is an apartment tower a good distance beyond the gate, looming out of the mist, the kind that is ubiquitous in Korea. Even small towns have them, so it doesn’t mean we’re close to a major city and thereby more likely to be rescued. But for some reason, like that black goat, just a glimpse of the outside world helps my trembling heart.

I sit back down next to Momo. She puts her feet up on the coffee table, so I do the same. She’s leaning back, but I can still wrap my arms around her and snuggle. I soon find I have an amazing view of her chest, and I shut my eyes to stop myself from thinking about it. Which doesn’t work.

“So, how was your day?” asks Momo.

I give her a brief synopsis of my experience, including my surmising that we were all kidnapped.

“That’s what I thought, too,” says Momo. She doesn’t really react when I tell her about Tzuyu. Or rather, she reacts by bottling everything up. But with my arms around her, I can feel her breathing change, her heart pulsing faster. I admire how fast she brings herself back under control, but it also scares me a little.

She also tells me she thinks she heard me crying out and running up the stairs.

“Do you know who’s up on the fourth floor?” I ask.

“I can’t get up there,” answers Momo. “The stairs on this side are gated off, too. What’s weird is the hatch to the roof on this side was open.”

“Really?” After everything I’ve seen today, I’m having trouble picturing it.

“Yeah, but it was on the other side of the gate, too. I think either the person laying up there entered the fourth floor through that hatch, or maybe whoever killed them escaped that way.”

“So you don’t think it was an accident?”

“How could it be? That mirror has wheels, so it wouldn’t have been hard to move. I just don’t see a reason to risk letting it fall on top of you.”

I open my eyes and deliberately try to avoid looking at her breasts.

“Who do you think is in the basement?”

“Not one of us,” she says. “I think you were right about that. We probably don’t have to worry about them, the door on the other side is blocked up.”

“What do you mean?”

“Um, let me start from the beginning. I woke up in the nurse’s office on the ground floor. There are three beds in there, and one of them was soaked through with blood.”

I imagine it dripping, gushing with warm lifeblood. I’m afraid to ask about a possible body.

“I had a headache, so I took some Tylenol from the medicine chest, and that’s when I noticed there was a trail of blood. It led through the doors into the hall, then to the stairs. It disappeared under the basement door. The padlock there was hanging limp, and there wasn’t a key. But someone had stacked a bunch of junk in front of the door.”

“How’d you react?” I hope bravely.

“I freaked out. I tried the doors outside, then I went down the hall to the other stairs. I didn’t even think about going down them. I just climbed and hit dead ends. I had to force myself to calm down when I saw the body under the mirror.”

So, she’s had a similar experience to me…

“I was afraid I’d hurt myself or attract attention if I tried to break out. I was so scared, I didn’t even think of just opening a window. Eventually, I had to turn around and think things through. That’s when I realized the blood trail didn’t go up the stairs on this side. So I went up and found the second floor gate closed, but unlocked.”

As much as I want to listen, I start to feel tired. I allow myself to peek at her breasts, if only to keep myself awake and alert.

They really are something, by the way.

“The teacher’s office was on the second floor. It had a combination lock instead of a padlock. Four separate turning digits. I tried combinations methodically, and just forced my way in. The key box for the school was just inside. Most of them were gone, however. But the key for this room wasn’t. When I got to the third floor, the gate was wide open. And here we are now.”

It’s almost fully dark outside. It surprises me how quickly the sun went down, and how cold it is getting. Momo uses a barbecue lighter to ignite the kerosene heater, then opens the window a crack for ventilation. She then opens the cabinet by the door and pulls out two pillows and blankets, presumably from downstairs. She hands me one set and lies down with the other on the opposite sofa.

I am incalculably hurt that she doesn’t want to cuddle with me.

“We’re just gonna go to sleep now?” I ask.

“Do you have a better idea? There’s no electricity, and I don’t have a flashlight. Lugging this heater around in the dark when some crazed kidnapper could pop up at any moment seems like a bad idea.”

I can’t argue with that, so I lie down. The heat of the kerosene is pleasant against my face, almost like a sunny day. But I can’t sleep, not really. Too much has happened today, and if I close my eyes I still see Tzuyu’s face, the hand under the mirror, the black door to the basement shaking in its frame. Plus, I still am sore as hell.

“Hey, do you still have some Tylenol?”

She points to the table with all the water and snacks.

“Thanks.”

I get up and take some medicine. When I drink some water with it, I start chugging. I hadn’t realized how dehydrated I’ve become. When I stop, I eye some of the snacks.

“Um, do you mind if I eat?”

“None of it’s mine, knock yourself out.”

I settle for a banana with a heavily-spotted peel and a bunch of crackers. There are rice and noodle cups, too, but since they need to be cooked I pass on them. I’m not exactly sure if I can heat them up enough with the kerosene heater.

I stuff my face and leave the trash piled on the coffee table. Momo is already asleep. That alone makes me jealous of her, whereas I swear if I fall asleep I’ll be wracked with nightmares for sure.

I lie down again but I don’t close my eyes. Instead I think about Momo, and my sudden attraction to her. Where did that come from? I can’t remember ever feeling that way about her, or any girl for that matter. Is it a reaction to all this danger and stress? Or have I been lying to myself all these years?

I drift off and dream about Momo, but it’s not the dream I would have expected. We’re being interviewed at a radio station in Seoul. We’re holding hands, and we each have a diamond ring on our fingers, American-style. Momo is explaining how we got married in L.A., and Tzuyu is here, and so is someone else but I can’t see their face.

“Before we continue, I just want to congratulate you on your new life together,” says the MC.

“Thank you,” Momo and I answer graciously. Tzuyu says nothing.

“I heard you ran into a little trouble on the way to the church. JYP Entertainment has been tight-lipped about the whole incident. Can you share anything with us?”

Momo lets go of me and buries her face in her hands. Reluctantly, I try to explain.

“Well, we were driving to the venue—”

“Who was driving?”

“I was,” I admit. “I’m not used to it, and it’s pretty hectic in L.A., so I…”

“You hit someone.”

“Y-yes. Head on.”

The MC’s eyes widen in shock. I can see Momo is silently crying, her tears ruining her makeup. Tzuyu looks sad and pensive, staring down at her hands.

The MC calms down and continues. “How bad was it?”

“Really bad. The car was totaled, and I hurt my leg.”

“Your left leg?”

“Yes. That’s why I’ve had trouble dancing all these years. Because of the car accident.”

“Did anyone else get hurt?”

I look at Tzuyu. Before I can respond, a hand clamps around my mouth. Tzuyu opens hers to speak, but a flood of blood pours out of her. She sits up straight, red blossoming across the bottom of her shirt, and the MC stands up, his eyes bulging in horror.

You can see her guts.

I jerk to my feet, briefly breaking free of my interloper’s grasp, but they recover instantly. Their one hand returns, but covers my eyes. A second hand clamps around my throat. It must be studded with glass shards from the way it hurts me. I struggle to escape, but it’s no use. I’m blind, and I can’t breathe, and I—

I wake up somehow suffocating on my own pillow. I sit up violently, tossing it aside. Momo wakes up and asks me groggily if I’m alright.

“B-bad dream,” I stutter.

She nods and then sits up herself. Once I catch my breath, I realize I seriously need to pee.

“Let’s go together,” suggests Momo. She makes a torch out of a roll of printer paper, then uses an empty metal wastebasket to catch the embers and ash.

“Ready?”

I nod.

I follow her closely out into the hall, carrying the bat since her hands are full. It is almost freezing. However creepy it looked in daylight, it is shear terror being out here in the dark. Almost no light filters in through the windows. Only Momo’s shitty torch provides any illumination beyond the doorway. When we first step out I make the mistake of looking to my right. The only thing to see that way is our reflection in the wall mirror, all the way down. The light of the kerosene heater behind us gives us an orange glow. We look like tiny little devils emerging from a pit of Hell.

I’m glad we don’t have to see into the mirror over the sink. We get to the sliding door and Momo unlatches it. As we cross the short distance to the restroom, I look right towards the stairs. I keep thinking I’ll spot a menacing figure there, but I don’t. Our torch is so weak, though, I probably couldn’t see it if there was one.

We choose the boys’ room because it is more open with all the urinals against one wall. Momo sets the torch down on the floor in front of two of the stalls. We should have just enough light to get things done. As I sit down, I worry about the noise I’m going to make, not just because everything is too quiet and spooky right now but also because my insides are turning knots and I don’t want to embarrass myself with Momo so close by.

We finish without incident, and go to wash our hands. I rinse my face, too, and study myself in the mirror. I look tired and ill, older than my twenty-four years. Gosh, am I twenty-four already? Momo’s twenty-three. These last four years have flown by.

I see two glinting red lights in the shadows behind me, next to the door. They look exactly like what I think eyes would in our flickering torchlight. I make a high-pitched whine and cower under the sink. Momo, suddenly alert, asks what’s wrong. All I can do is weakly point behind me.

She grabs the torch and the bat, but nothing’s there.

“Are you sure you saw something?”

I say I’m not, but I really am. Someone was watching us from just inside the doorway.

“Let’s check to make sure,” she says. She grips the bat with two hands while I meekly carry the torch and wastebasket. No one is in the two classrooms in this wing, nor in the girls’ restroom. We peek out into the main hallway, but no one is there, either. There are plenty of hiding spots in there, it’s true, but Momo thinks they would have made some noise if they did. Finally, we look up and down the stairwell, though we stay on the third-floor landing.

“Maybe your eyes played tricks on you,” whispers Momo.

She’s wrong, I know I saw something, but I’m not mad at her for thinking that. I walk over to the window to see out, dropping the torch in the wastebasket so as not to be blocked by our reflections.

“I can’t see anything out there,” says Momo.

“Neither can I,” I say, though I can just barely make out the shape of the next building. Then something bothers me.

“I can’t see any lights from outside.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, streetlights and that sort of thing.”

Momo is unperturbed. “There are probably just mountains in that direction.”

But I shake my head. “I’m sure I would have seen them this morning.”

Momo shrugs. As if on cue, the thing in the basement pounds the black door with all of its might. I fling myself around Momo in fright, though I just manage to maintain my grip on the torch-basket.

“What the fuck is that?” asks Momo, through gritted teeth.

“I told you earlier, it’s trapped in the basement.”

She slides out of my grasp and stands at the top of the stairs. I don’t like the look on her face. It’s peculiar, like a macabre or morbid curiosity. She wants to investigate.

“No, don’t,” I beg her. I am suddenly acutely aware, not just of the thing in the basement, but the dead body lying mere meters above us, and of the poor dead girl sitting outside near the cafeteria doors. If I were brave enough to face that huge mirror, I could walk down to the far end of our hallway and possibly see her through the last window. Wave hi to her, even.

If only it were light out, that is.

Momo acquiesces. “Let’s go back to bed.”

There’s not enough torch left for me to hold it in my hand, so I have to awkwardly hold the wastebasket sideways to let the light out in front of us. I lead the way, and we stop so Momo can latch the sliding door again. In the moment we are paused, my heart leaps into my throat.

Someone is standing by the door to our lounge.

They’re not in the light of the kerosene heater, otherwise I might be able to tell who it is. Instead, they are standing back, and I can only tell they’re there because they’ve broken my line of sight with our reflection in the far mirror.

As I point them out to Momo, they step back, out of sight. She totally misses them, but I appreciate it when she doesn’t act like I’m seeing things.

“Let’s just get over there quickly,” she says.

She rushes forward, as fast as she can without breaking into a run. I follow, but I have to be careful with the torch-basket, as it is almost out. When I catch up to her, she hands me the bat and says, “Hold this for a second.”

The kerosene heater has an ugly metal handle. Momo lifts it with both her hands, making an annoying metal squeal. She sets it down in the hall and turns it up to the max. Heat pours out of the thing, but light does as well. She then grabs more paper for another torch.

“Let’s search this place.”

It turns out there are no good hiding places, even with all the junk out here. We search the whole hall, and no one is there, nor are any of the classrooms unlocked. That leaves the stairs next to the blocked bridge as the only point of egress.

“Can we lock this gate?” I ask Momo.

“Actually, I think we can. Good idea, Nayeon.”

She starts down the stairs.

“What? Where are you going?”

“To get the combination lock. Come on.”

I hurry up after her, trepidation building. This stairway juts out the side of the building, so one half of it is faced by massive windows. Off to the far left sits Tzuyu, for all eternity, but of course I won’t be able to see her. The angle is wrong, and anyway it’s too dark. But I realize I can see the next building much better than before. It’s because of our kerosene heater.

It occurs to me just how easy it would be for anyone to watch what we’re doing from the other buildings.

I stop at the second floor landing, but Momo plows straight ahead. The teacher’s office is right here, and she scolds me a little.

“I need that light, Nayeon.”

I step forward, looking right and left. The hallway here is identical to the one upstairs, though it is much shorter. The same huge sort of mirror is to my immediate left, and I do my best to avoid looking into it, instead facing the other way while I hold the torch for Momo. But there’s another mirror-and-sink combo down that way…

It takes Momo a few tries to remember the combination, but she succeeds and we are back upstairs in no time. Nothing seems to have changed while we were gone, and I haven’t seen that shadowy figure again. Maybe I _was_ only seeing things.

Momo turns the heater back down and brings it back inside. When she shuts the door, I can’t help myself.

“Can we _please_ just barricade it?”

To my surprise, Momo agrees this time. Maybe hearing the thing in the basement has affected her. We move the cabinet over with no trouble.

“If you need to go again in a hurry, go in the sink,” says Momo. I think she is only half-joking.

I sit down on my sofa, and she settles back in on hers, and I blurt something out again.

“Can we, uh, sleep together?”

It sounds so awkward, the way I said it, but she throws open her blanket invitingly.

“Thanks.” I get up.

“Shut off the heater, will you? Otherwise we’ll burn up together.”

I can see an ‘_off’_ switch, so I hit it and jump like a mouse from the clang it makes. A ring of smoke issues forth as the flame is shut off, and the only light left in the room is from the torch embers in the wastebasket.

“You know, Nayeon,” Momo tells me, “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

Blushing, I step over to her and get on the sofa with her. There’s not much room, so I have to lie down on top of her. I don’t mind, of course, and I don’t think she does, either.

“Momo,” I whimper, nuzzling her neck. I lean in to kiss her cheek right as she is turning to face me. My lips press precisely against hers. It feels perfect to me, but she doesn’t kiss me back.

I try again, more forcefully this time. She still doesn’t really respond, though this time I can feel the tip of her tongue probing against mine.

I stop, and she just seems a little confused.

“I’m really tired,” she says, cautiously.

I relent. Have I offended her? But she hasn’t booted me to the other sofa, or cringed or anything. Maybe she’s unsure of herself. I mean, I don’t remember feeling this way until today, with this life-or-death situation we’ve been thrust into.

Maybe this is what being in LOONA feels like.

I’m tired, too, so I try to drift back to sleep, enjoying the feel of her underneath me, her scent, the soft sound of her breaths in my ear. I feel so pleasant like this, and I fade from consciousness as the last embers in the room go out.


	3. Chapter 3

I have another nightmare, even worse than before, but circumstances force it from my mind completely.

We’re woken up by a loud crashing sound from downstairs. It happens a few more times, and then we hear something large thumping around down there.

_“It’s the thing in the basement!”_ I mewl pitifully.

“How’s it only getting out now?” asks Momo, sleepily.

I can’t answer her yet. I’m stunned by the strange light coming in through the window.

“Is that the moon?”

I get up and take a look. No, it’s not the moon. It seems to be coming from over by the far apartment building. It’s like a giant spotlight, though an eerie off-white color. It’s not pointed at us, either. Instead it seems to be aimed at something down in the yard below. Something that wasn’t there this afternoon.

Momo joins me at the window. “That looks like _Cheomseongdae_!”

“It can’t be,” I say, “it’s gotta be a replica.”

“But how’d it get there in the middle of the night?”

Maybe it’s Styrofoam, maybe it’s balsa wood, maybe it’s even an inflatable version of the observatory in Gyeongju. I don’t get a chance to share my theories. Something is coming for us.

_ Boom. Boom. Boom._

“What is that?” I ask. Momo shushes me.

_“Quiet, or it’ll find us!”_ she whispers harshly.

She grabs me and we huddle behind the sofa in the corner furthest from the door. The booming sounds keep getting closer. They’re coming from the stairs.

“Did someone let it out?” she whispers.

“I don’t know,” I whimper.

She gets up and grabs her baseball bat. With that crazy spotlight outside, we can see easily right now. She stands in front of the blocked off door and stares.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

_ Boom. Boom. Boom._

“Do you think it knows where we are? Maybe we should run for it.”

I don’t know what to do. I stand up and go to her, and my knees give me hell for it.

“I can’t! I can’t run,” I protest.

_“Shit.”_ Momo looks really worried.

_Boom. Boom._ The sound stops over by the gate. Briefly we hear it rattle as something pushes against it in vain. Then it stops, and the booming sound begins to descend the stairs.

“Now’s our chance,” says Momo. She squeezes in between the cabinet and the wall and starts to push it back.

“What? Why are you doing that?” I ask helplessly.

“I’m not fighting that thing, whatever it is, and if it came up the stairs it knows where we are. Even if you can’t run, we can find another room to hide in.”

_Boom. Boom. Boom._ The thing is below us, on the second floor. Momo begins to push the cabinet back, and I grab what little snacks and water I can carry.

She gives me a questioning look.

“If we find a way out of here, we could be wandering for hours,” I explain. “We’re gonna need something to eat and drink to keep going.”

“Oh. Right.”

She’s moved the cabinet enough that she can open the door. The booming has reached the other stairwell, and Momo shrieks as she looks out into the hall.

“What? What is it?”

“I don’t know! It’s gone now!”

She peeks her head out, then steps back in to grab the lighter and the heater. With an ear-splitting clang, she sets the heater down outside again and lights it up.

“Why’d you do that?”

“I can’t see anything. Come on!”

She hands me the lighter to carry and leads me back to the combination lock. Meanwhile, the thing has reached the wooden sliding door and is throwing its strength against it. Unlike the metal gate, we can both tell the wooden door isn’t going to last.

“Here, keep that thing lit while I get us out of here.”

I hold the lighter up for her. To my surprise and relief, she remembers the combo immediately this time, and we rush down the stairs. We’ve reached the ground floor by the time the wooden door finally breaks.

“Let’s open a window in the nurse’s room,” says Momo.

“Hey, the front door’s open,” I observe.

Indeed it is. Someone left the chain lying on the ground, too. I look towards the almost blindingly backlit _Cheomseongdae_, and give a start when I notice a figure standing near it.

A figure wearing a girl’s high school uniform.

“Look! Somebody’s out there!”

This time, I’m in the lead, with Momo watching my back. She has no difficulty keeping up with my faltering gait. I practically run into the back of the person I’m trying to reach. She doesn’t seem to notice me.

It’s Dahyeon. She’s staring at the stone tower as if in a trance. She even has a bit of drool in the corner of her mouth. It’s a good thing I came at her from behind, because she’s slackly holding a knife in her hand.

Her blouse is also covered in blood.

“Dahyeon, are you alright?”

She doesn’t answer me, but she seems to stir. She blinks a couple times, and opens and closes her mouth. I grab the knife out of her hand and toss it aside, then run my hand under her shirt against her skin, where the blood would have come from. She is completely unharmed.

It’s not a good sign.

“Look!” says Momo, pointing back at the school. I turn and wince. It seems like every window holds a dark silhouette, red-eyed, watching us. Then the moment passes, and I turn around again and look towards the eerie white light.

“There’s the gate. Let’s hurry!”

I take Dahyeon’s hand and lead her away. She responds to my touch this time, and the three of us arrive at the gate. Of course it is locked, and it is as high as the wall penning us in. There seems to be no way to climb over it, either.

“Fuck!” I utter.

“What do we do now?” asks Momo.

Well, we can’t stay here in this fucking spotlight.

“We’ve gotta find another place to hide.”

There’s a bit of cover if we keep close to the wall on this side. We head towards the playground and the kindergarten, and I look back towards the lounge we had been in. I think I can see smoke and a flickering orange light.

“Something must’ve knocked over the heater,” I whisper.

Momo nods her agreement. Dahyeon merely looks less confused, her face slick and sweaty.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she pants. “Don’t let those things touch you.”

I grimace. “What are they?”

Dahyeon shrugs.

We round the corner and reach the second building, the one I remember waking up in. I move towards the restroom window I know is still unlocked. We pass the stoop door, and water is rushing out from under it. The fire from the kerosene heater must have triggered the ceiling sprinklers. I wonder why I don’t hear the alarm, then I remember there’s no power for it to run on.

“Where are we going?” asks Momo.

“In here.” I open the window and hop through. They follow quickly, and I latch the window. I mean to stay here the rest of the night, but the restroom is very cold now, and I kind of think we should find some higher ground. However, now I can’t see shit.

“Gimme a second,” I say quietly, and I flick on the lighter. The weak candle flame it makes is nearly useless, but better than nothing. I open the handicap stall door, and the two of them follow me closely. The lighter goes out before I reach the glass door, but then I don’t need it. Something in the hallway is lit up.

I unlock the door and we turn to the right. The ornate lanterns in front of the school museum are alight. I had no idea they weren’t electric, I had just assumed it was so.

“Should we check it out?” asks Momo.

“Sure, why not?” I respond. “Hey, Dahyeon?”

“Yes? What?” She’s improving, little by little.

“Do you know anything about that?” I point to the lanterns.

“No, I don’t…I have no idea.”

We walk towards the museum slowly and carefully. I’m on the alert for anything going bump in the night. When we’re almost there, I notice that the mysterious, eerie light from outside is pouring through the ‘street’ between school buildings, as Tzuyu is practically radiant in it.

“Wait, what happened?” begs Dahyeon. She sounds so distraught.

“We don’t know,” I try to tell her gently. We reach the museum doors, and I’ve only just noticed the strange scent of some incense burning when the doors are thrust open and Sana beckons us to get in, quick.

***

Sana and Mina have a campsite of sorts in the center of the museum, surrounded by display cases of various artifacts. Visually, many of them have a peculiar quality to them, though i can't put my finger on what it is exactly. There are also several small braziers of burning incense or the like.

“We lucked out finding this place,” said Sana. “It seems to ward off those…things.”

“What are they?” I ask.

“We don’t know. They’re not human, but then again, they seem all _too_ human.”

“What do you mean?” asks Momo.

“Mina and I…when I found Mina, those things were saying some awful stuff.” Mina was lying down on top of a rug in the middle of the room, asleep. She was using some seat cushion from somewhere as a pillow, but her only blanket was her uniform jacket. Suddenly I am really missing the rest of my clothes.

Sana continued. “I think that’s all they could do then. They need a host to affect things physically.”

I think back to what Dahyeon had said: _Don’t let them touch you._

“Is that what happened to Tzuyu?” asks Momo.

“We think so,” murmurs Sana. It hurts my heart to hear her like this.

“Come on, let’s go to sleep.” She lies down, snuggling with Mina. After a moment, Momo moves to join them, leaving me and Dahyeon standing up.

I look at Dahyeon’s mess of a blouse. “Do you know where all that’s from?” I ask her as calmly as I can.

“What?” She looks down at herself. “Where...n-no, I don't.”

I can’t have her snuggling with me, er, us, with her wearing that filthy thing. I put aside the snacks and water I somehow miraculously didn’t drop and unbutton her blouse, pulling it off her and tossing it into some dusty gap between cases. Now she’s only wearing her bra above the waistline. I let my self-control falter and openly stare at her. Her breasts are not as big as Momo’s (and neither of them can compete with Jihyo in that department), but still…damn.

Dahyeon covers up her chest by crossing her arms. I think for a second that I’ve offended her, but then I notice she’s shivering. I’m cold in just this blouse; surely she must be freezing.

I look around for another seat cushion and find one in the corner. It’s near the back window, and I get a good view of the other school building. The third floor appears to be completely on fire. The sprinkler system must have run out of water before putting out the heater. I worry about it reaching us, but then I remember there’s only one bridge, and it’s sealed off from us.

“Holy shit,” breathes Dahyeon behind me. She puts her arms around my middle and snuggles against me from behind, standing up. Sana notices something is up and rouses the other two.

“Hi, Mina,” I say offhandedly. I extend my hand to her and she squeezes it gently. Sana is holding her much as Dahyeon is holding me, and Momo takes up a position between each pairing, draping an arm over Sana and Dahyeon’s shoulders accordingly.

“How’d a fire start up there?” asks Mina.

“Oh, that’s sort of our fault,” says Momo. “We had a heater, and something came after us. It must have spilled burning fuel all over that wooden floor.”

“Wooden floor?” asks Sana. “That’s so different from the other buildings.”

“Where all have you been?” I ask.

“In here, that unfinished building, and the gym,” she answers.

“Have you met anyone else?”

“You mean in Twice?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I haven’t, but Mina said she got separated from Chaeyeong…”

Mina shuddered. “Have you guys seen her?”

“No…”

A moment of silence passes, then I speak up again.

“There’s five of us here. We know they got Tzuyu, and Chaeyeong is missing. There was someone on the fourth floor up there. So, it’s either her or Jeongyeon or Jihyo, and the remaining two are unaccounted for. Assuming they ended up in this mad school, too.”

“How’d we get here?” asks Dahyeon. I tell them about my kidnapping theory.

“That makes sense,” says Mina, “but for all the freaky shadow people besieging us in here.” She gestures out the window, and suddenly I see them, massed in the darker places in front of me. I get the feeling they’ve been hiding there, watching us the entire time.

We move our “camp” to a spot less visible from the windows. One of them gets close enough to peer right in at us, and Sana puts a candle down over there. It flits away back out of sight.

“They really don’t like light,” she tells us.

We snuggle together, me lying on top of Dahyeon since she’s practically naked compared to the rest of us. Our arms are weirdly pretzeled together, but my right hand is free. I want to use it to stroke Dahyeon’s breast, but I’m too embarrassed to do it in front of everyone else. To keep myself from obsessing over kissing her, I try to think of something else. This leads me to my last question.

“How’d you two get in here? When I tried the door this morning, it was locked.”

Sana explains, “I found Mina in the gym. She was clutching a key chain, and one of them worked.”

“Do you have a key to the front gate?”

Sadly, Sana said no.

I have a few more questions to ask, but I decide to withhold them for now. It must be really late, and the sun is bound to rise sooner or later. Surely we’ll be safe (enough) from those things then. So I wish Sana a goodnight.

“Goodnight, Nayeon,” she whispers back.

Mina is already asleep again, her face buried in the nape of Sana’s neck. Momo is lying between our pairings, her posture perfect and her mouth slightly agape. I’m surprised she looks so comfortable, but then again, Momo could probably sleep standing up. Dahyeon’s eyes are closed, but from her breathing I don’t think she’s asleep just yet. I lean in to give her a kiss, but I don’t peck her on the cheek. Instead, I kiss her full on the mouth, the way I did Momo some hours ago. Unlike Momo, Dahyeon gives back fully. We taste each other until we’re out of breath, and when I rest my head on her shoulder, I notice that Sana has been watching us the whole time. She has a look of what must be sexual thrill on her face.

I knew it. All her excuses about only being affectionate were lies, just like Chaeyeong’s. Both of them are lesbians, and what am I? Maybe it was the three-year dating ban, or living in such close proximity to beautiful women all this time, but I have to admit to myself I’m no longer interested in chasing the dick. Maybe Jeongyeon is, she’s such a prude. And I’m sure Jihyo is, else she wouldn’t have spent all that time at Daniel’s apartment. But the rest of us?

Maybe Mina’s the only straight one left.

Then I think of Tzuyu, and I berate myself. How can I think of sex at a time like this? I only hope it’s because the need to survive has triggered some procreative instinct in me.


	4. Chapter 4

We wake up the next morning to a crashing sound outside. Part of the other building is crumbling, and we can feel the heat of the inferno from here. Smoke obscures the rising sun, but the day is foggy anyways. Mina gives Dahyeon her jacket to wear, and I share my meager bounty of snacks with the others for breakfast. Still hungry, we unlock the doors to head to the restroom. Sana and Momo are in front, followed by Mina with me and Dahyeon pulling up the rear. We are stopped dead in our tracks by the change in the hallway outside.

Someone has written our names in red ink all over the floors, walls, and ceiling.

“How? How’d they do this?” sputters Mina.

I would have thought it obvious—the shadow-people would not have had a hard time scrounging up red Sharpies in a school building, but then I notice the two hanging lanterns have burned out. They must have been keeping this side of the doors safe until they ran out of fuel.

We hurry to the restrooms, but they have been similarly defaced. I start to head to the stairs, but Sana stops me.

“Let’s just go to the other building.”

“Oh? Is it unlocked?” I ask.

“Some of it is, but we also have keys now, too,” she says, jangling them.

I nod and unlatch the nearest window.

“We could just use that door,” she says, pointing to the one by the museum. She and Mina must have gotten into this building through there.

“Or we could go this way and not pass through all the graffiti again.” I don’t say it, but I also don’t want to get that close to Tzuyu if I can help it. Unless she’s gotten up and walked around since yesterday.

I hop out, knees buckling, and extend my hand to Dahyeon. She blurts out, “Why are there only three names?”

I look at her. There must be hundreds of names scrawled inside. “Huh?”

“It’s just the same three names over and over. Mina, Sana, and Momo…”

I peer inside, and she’s right. Only those three names are repeated over and over, in red ink.

Only the Japanese members of Twice.

In Korea, it is taboo to write a living person’s name in red. It is reserved for the dead at funerals. The three of them recognize the significance of this and hop out the window quick. Dahyeon joins us, looking disturbed.

Sana leads us over to the last building. She opens a window easily. “This is how I got out yesterday,” she says.

I’m the last one through. I look at the ivy garden lattice. Is it, I don’t know, fatter than yesterday? I get the feeling it’d be a bad idea to walk under it today. Tzuyu is still sitting by her sink. The smoke from the fire is making the sunlight do weird things. Dancing and undulating. It’s almost enough to trick me into thinking Tzuyu is starting to move.

This restroom, though not large, is thankfully clean. We hurry up and do our thing, and wash up. I don’t think any of us want to go back into the middle building, and the front building is currently collapsing in on itself, so it’s either here or the gym for now.

Sana unlocks the restroom door, and we tiptoe out. The stairs are to our right, and we just sort of start in that direction when we all notice something completely crazy outside the windows.

“Are we in North Korea?” asks Sana, incredulously. I have to agree, it certainly seems plausible based on what we are witnessing.

It’s the unfinished mural I glimpsed yesterday. By the doors, it says _I love Dokdo_, but now I can see a mostly finished section to its left. It is pure social realism, showing a unified Korea kicking down Japan and standing up to China. America seems to be skulking in the background, like a wounded rat. There are blank spaces for propaganda slogans, but the only writing I can find is an archaic style of _hangeul_ which says: 동해초등학요.

_ Donghae Chodeung Hagkyo._

East Sea Elementary School.

“How far from Seoul are we?” I ask. No one has any answers.

We sit down on the stairs in stunned silence. Sana fidgets with her key chain, and everyone else is dumbstruck.

North Korea. It makes sense—at least, everything but the supernatural monsters stalking us last night makes sense now. If we were kidnapped by them, then stuffed in some coastal construction site, no wonder we haven’t been found. Heck, it even explains why there’s no electricity. But it also means we need to leave right now.

“You’re sure none of those fits the front gate?”

Sana nods. “We tried it before we entered the middle building. And there aren’t any other gates out.”

I think to ask about possible tunnels, but what do I know? That thing in the basement was going to kill us. If an escape tunnel exists, I’m sure we’ll all die down there. I brood, listening to the fire devouring the front building, to the weak wind and crashing waves, to a bleating goat—

Hey! I know that goat!

I jump to my feet and startle the others as I rush to the windows. I look left this time, past the idiotic mural and to the stony hill the high wall braces against. Sure enough, the black goat is there, chewing boringly, and more important, _this building is higher than the hill_.

“What? What did you see?” asks Sana.

“I think we can get out up there,” I say, pointing. There’s not much of a gap between the building and the hill/wall, either.

The others join us. “Can we get onto the roof with your keys?” I ask.

“Maybe. Let’s take a look.”

She fumbles through her keys and finds one marked ‘roof’. Cautiously excited, we climb the stairs and reach a step ladder leading to a trap door in the ceiling. No easy access like the other building.

Sana climbs up and tries the padlock. She curses and comes back down.

“It’s the wrong one.”

We fan out, checking for another way up there, but we’re out of luck. The whole floor is open to the elements, so it is cold, and I can smell the fire from over yonder. But I can smell the sea, as well.

It brings me no comfort.

“Is there a way to climb up there through the windows?” asks Mina.

Momo blanches, and I don’t blame her. We could easily fall and break our necks.

“Shouldn’t we try the other building first? We can get back to this one walking on top of the bridge,” suggests Dahyeon.

It’s a sound plan, and I’m glad she’s recovering from whatever the hell trance we found her in last night. Sana manages to unlock the third floor bridge on this side, and then the other. So we don’t have to go down and up three flights of stairs, nor must we pass through the hall of names again.

The first roof trapdoor is a dud, and so is the second. We explore, and while the names are mercifully confined to the first floor, there is no third trap door. That leaves the gymnasium as our only hope.

“If we can get up there,” says Sana, pointing out the window to a door above a mounted stepladder, “we can walk all the way back to the hill.” There’s no padlock on it, either.

She is able to open the bridge to the gym, and we set out. Like the other one, it is completely open to the air, and this close to the burning front building, it is really unpleasant. We practically crawl across the thing, not that we are in danger of smoke inhalation. The smoke isn’t drifting over here enough for that. It’s just that now, we feel really vulnerable. I can’t say why.

We reach the gym door and as Sana fiddles with her keys, I look down at the ground. The vines in the garden obscure the brick walk absolutely. I scan right, looking at the next bridge. This one connects the gym to the last building. If we can get on top of that one, we’ll have a shortcut. I am just about to suggest this when I look down at the sinks and notice the dried bloodstain, there is a new set of bloody footprints that I don’t remember seeing yesterday, and Tzuyu’s body is gone, it’s gone, it’s gone—

“Oh, _shit!_” I whisper violently, ducking down. The others crouch and ask me what I saw. I gesture to them to look, and their expressions confirm it.

Momo grips her baseball bat nervously. Sana looks like she wants to reassure us with doubts, but I peer over the other side of the railing. There, the footprints lead on, to one set of open doors.

Into the gym.

“Oh Christ, we’re fucked!” says Mina. She’s probably right, but since there’s nothing for it I wave at Sana to continue. She gets the door open and we creep inside, hearts racing.

We’re not in the gym proper. This is a back hallway, connecting the entrances on this side with stairs. The windows here lack curtains, and daylight graces us with its presence. But to our right, there is an open door leading into darkness.

I can feel them in there. This is where they must hide during the day. I wonder who left the door open, though. It must irritate them so.

We don’t need to go through it. The stairs are straight ahead, and we reach our destination without incident. Sana has just opened the door when we hear footsteps approaching from the landing below.

“Hello?” asks Dahyeon. “Who’s there?”

The footsteps stop, and we listen, frozen, until I hear just the faintest sound of rubber sole on linoleum tile.

_“Bitch is creeping on us!”_ I yell, and I would have laughed but for the terror in my heart. We pour out of the door, hopping down the step ladder and rushing back across the bridge, too scared to pay attention to the lack of railing up here. There’s a ladder on the opposite end, and we stop in a sort of traffic jam when I realize I forgot to mention my shortcut and we took the long way around. Dahyeon is the last one up and I am grabbing her hand to help her when I look and see Tzuyu standing in the doorway, Tzuyu with her shirt and skirt stained with her blood, Tzuyu looking paler than she’s ever been, Tzuyu staring back at me blankly with her glassy eyes, Tzuyu dead with a baseball bat that matches Momo’s in her hand.

She hops down the step ladder and I am not the only one who screams. I scream again when the door to the left, to the shortcut I missed, is smashed open and a very bloody-looking Jihyo with her own bat limp-dashes across without even looking at us.

“They’re gonna cut us off!” I shout. Sana helps me get the other two to their feet and we sprint towards our bridge. We get down onto it when Sana stumbles and I almost dislocate her shoulder yanking her back from the brink. We’ve no time for apologies or for thanks, Tzuyu is almost on us and Jihyo has climbed her ladder already.

Momo is the first over the top. Jihyo must have broken her ankle, she’s moving so badly. Momo easily dodges away from her swings, keeping her distracted. Mina and Dahyeon make it up there and are begging her to stop. Sana is only just beginning to climb when Tzuyu jumps down at the other end.

There is no way we can beat her in a straight fight, even if she wasn’t this weird zombie. If she gets one good swing on either of us, we’re dead. She doesn’t even need to kill us outright, she could just knock us off the bridge.

This gives me an idea, and I rush Tzuyu. I duck under her clumsy swing and grab hold of the ladder on that side. It is bolted to the roof and wall, making it perfect for leverage. With both feet, I somehow pull off a push-kick that sends her into a tumble. She disappears over the side, along with her bat. I myself fall on my back, nearly slipping over the edge and knocking the wind out of me. Sana helps me back to my feet, and once I catch my breath she leads me back to the ladder. When we get up it, we find that Momo is holding two bats and Mina and Dahyeon are holding Jihyo’s arms.

“Please! Listen to us!” sobs Mina.

“It’s no use,” I say. “Look at her, she’s already gone.”

Jihyo still struggles, but I can see her wounds, her eyes. She stinks, and I can see she voided herself when she died. Her stench also reminds me of something else.

“I think she was the one in the basement.”

Poor Jihyo. Poor Tzuyu, too.

There’s a loud, rumbling crash as the front building finally collapses in on itself. The plume of smoke and dust it creates plunges us into darkness, seeming to strengthen Jihyo. It takes all of us to hold her down.

“Can you finish her?” I ask Momo. She is at a loss for words. It’s just as well, though, I doubt anyone could kill a shadow zombie like this with just a baseball bat.

“We’ve got to toss her over the side.”

But I’m wrong. The sun is high enough now that once the plume dissipates, we are well illuminated. After a while, Jihyo twitches and goes limp. We set her down, and whatever eldritch magic was possessing her seems to have withered in the sunlight.

***

We reach the end of the building. The hill, with its black goat waiting expectantly (for my hugs and pets, I hope), is just a few short meters away. We don’t even have to jump, some workmen left a bunch of tools and construction supplies up here. There’s a large metal ladder, and it is not very difficult to extend it and reach the hill. The fog still obscures the terrain, and the sunlight beaming down on us from on high makes everything so white and bright, it’s like we’re in a luminist painting. But I am sure that down this hill is the sea. The sound and smell is just too strong. Hopefully there’s a beach down there, and it is not a far walk to safety from, well, wherever we are.

If we have to steal some rickety North Korean fishing boat, I may throw up.

We have to go down the ladder backwards, one at a time, and it is much scarier than I thought it would be. Momo is in tears by the time she gets off of it. I am too, and I am thankful I am not the last one down. Mina volunteers to do it, and there is no one up there to hold the ladder steady at that end. She comes down the slowest, though from the way Dahyeon kept freezing, Mina is in good company.

We all give the goat our affection, and it follows us as we try to get off this hill. There’s a trail leading off towards the gym, and without any other ideas we walk along it. It soon runs down to the base of the high wall. The hillside itself is very steep in places, almost sheer. It makes me wish I had the footing of the goat.

We wind up in the shadow of the gym, and the hill widens somewhat. There’s a ladder mounted on the wall here, going all the way up. It’s odd, but I don’t give it any more thought than it deserves because there is an old hut down the way, presumably the home of the goat keeper.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” we ask. We hear the creak of old furniture as the person inside rushes out. It’s Chaeyeong.

I hold my (Jihyo’s) bat up warily, but Baby Tiger is clearly alive, and elated to see us.

“Did you find my note? What happened to the rest of you?”

Before we can answer, Mina steps forward. Chaeyeong throws herself around her, and they hug. Then Baby Tiger looks like she’s going to kiss her, but hesitates. We are all surprised, but delighted, when Mina does it for her.

It’s about time.

The moment ends, and Chaeyeong draws back to greet each of us. She freaks out when she sees Dahyeon.

“What is _she_ doing here?” she hisses. “Do you know what she _did?_”

Dahyeon shrinks back, tears in her eyes, shaking her head in horror. I put my arm around her and defend her.

“Whatever she did, it wasn’t her. It was those things. They just sent Tzuyu and Jihyo as zombies to try and stop us escaping, so don’t blame Dahyeon.”

Chaeyeong looks like she’s going to argue, then shakes her head. Instead she asks, “How did you get out?”

“We found a ladder on the roof and made it across to that hill,” explains Sana, pointing back towards Mr. Goat.

“How’d you get out?” asks Momo.

“That ladder. It connects to the gym. There’s a utility connection up there. See the wires along the top?”

We look up, and I can sort of see what she’s talking about.

“What was that loud noise a little bit ago?” she continues.

“One of the buildings caught fire and collapsed,” said Mina.

Chaeyeong nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

We follow her further along the wall, and Mr. Goat tags along some more. The trail gets worse before it gets better, but we make it to the school gate without incident. Hanging limply above it is a banner: _I love Dokdo_.

“Why is that even here?” I protest loudly.

“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense for the North Koreans to be so obsessed about that,” says Sana.

Chaeyeong whirls on us. “You think we’re in North Korea?”

“Yeah,” I tell her. “We saw a propaganda mural. It fit their style. Also, it’s why there’s no electricity.”

Chaeyeong frowns. “Then why are there all these Southern branded snacks and things lying around? Lotte’s all I’ve been eating lately.”

Mina suggests they smuggled them in when they kidnapped us, and we put it from our minds.

The driveway zig-zags down the hill, but there’s a long set of steps providing us with a direct route down. We descend, until suddenly out of the fog looms an automobile bridge and a building. We enter it and realize it’s a ferry station. Nothing about it seems Northern at all. There are also no people, and no boats.

“Where are we?” we all ask.

The place is stripped bare of documentation, its furniture piled to one side. Must have been in the middle of renovation. We make our exit and try the bridge. It’s strange, there’s only the ferry and the driveway on this side. What’s the point of it?

On the other side of the bridge, we find a massive building site. It’s the apartment complex I saw last night. The roadway dead ends at its base in a small parking lot full of construction equipment.

We look at each other. What is with this place?

I notice Mr. Goat has lost interest in us. He didn’t follow us over the bridge. There are steps leading up between the apartment towers, so with no other options we climb.

It takes us a long time to get to the top. So long that the fog has finally burned off. We look around and stare at our surroundings in utter disbelief. This can’t be. This is impossible.

“How did we get here?” asks Dahyeon shrilly. She sounds like she’s hyperventilating. I think I will, too.

Dokdo. We’re on Dokdo. In the middle of fucking nowhere. Boats can’t even get here most of the year. And yet somebody thought it was a good idea to build a school and high-rises out here.

Why? What the fuck?

A bright light shines down on us. It’s coming from the summit of this island, and I realize the source is a massive lighthouse. It must be what the light from last night came from. We wander closer and see it’s a massive, modern version of _Cheomseongdae_.

“I want to go home so badly,” says Dahyeon, next to me.

It could be weeks before anyone thinks to search for us here. We’ll be dead long before that, turned into slaves of whatever evil was conjured up when the government foolishly broke ground here. What were they even thinking? That they had to colonize this place to cement their claim?

I am organizing a plan in my mind, to rush that insipid lighthouse and throttle whoever or whatever is watching us right now when the light goes out. There is a loud cacophony on the other side of the island, away from the bridge and apartments. Something massive rushes up the cliffs, and I am blinded by a burst of sea-foam. The spray hovers in the air in front of us, and I realize with a jolt that it has a shape. The bubbles in the foam glisten and twinkle, too.

“I-i-it’s—” stutters Sana, “it’s a d-d-d—”

It’s a dragon. Made of darkness studded with sea-foam stars. Star-foam?

It opens its eyes to regard us like a bored cat, and I gasp. One eye mirrors the _Taegukgi_, the South Korean flag. The other mirrors the North Korean one, the _Ramhongsaek_ _Konghwagukgi_.

I clutch at Dahyeon. We are dead. Even if there’s a boat around here somewhere, we cannot outrun the sea itself.

_“Who are you?”_ shrieks Mina.

It stares at her a long time before replying. It doesn’t move its mouth to speak, instead we hear its terrible voice in our heads.

_ I am one of the Old Gods. Guiding light to humanity. I grow ever stronger, stronger than I have in years._

_“What do you want?”_ shouts Sana.

_ I want to feed. I demand sacrifice. I thrive when humans divide themselves. I want them to war._

I see a vision, of an eagle and a bear tearing each other apart. An army of panda warriors cuts into a wave of Mondo Mascots. Other battles rage in the background, and the entire thing is horrible and absurd.

_I will let you three live, if you kill the other three. I will be sated, for now._

_“I’m not killing anyone!”_ yells Chaeyeong.

_ We shall see._

I look to the others. I have to think for a moment what he means. But there’s only one label dividing us into groups of three.

“He wants the Koreans to kill the Japanese,” I explain. Chaeyeong hugs Mina defiantly, and I look to Dahyeon, Sana, and Momo.

“Let’s pair up.” Dahyeon takes Sana by the hand, and I put my arms around Momo. Defiance feels good. I know we are about to die, but as things stand, this is not a bad way to go.

The dragon merely scoffs.

***

Rescue comes early the next day. We don’t tell them anything about the strange goings-on. We reach the mainland and are shut up in a hotel in Busan. We watch the news. Apparently some vicious cult was fingered, for the kidnappings at least. Tzuyu and Jihyo are recovered where we left them, but Jeongyeon is dug out of the burning ruin. She must have been the one on the fourth floor.

But no real details are broadcast. We only learn them when we’re finally debriefed. On TV, there is no sign of the construction on _Dokdo_. Old stock footage is used. The cover-up is successful. We certainly tell no one what really happened.

When we get back to Seoul, Twice disbands, but we do not. We move in together, and have enough money saved up from the last four incredible years that we don’t need to work the rest of our lives. We just do charity gigs from now on.

The boss writes the song for the funerals. It’s his last. He resigns from the company he founded, that bears his name. He understands why we quit. I wonder if he ever learned the truth.

The growing tension between South Korea and Japan abruptly dies down. Abe ends his ridiculous export ban, coming to his senses. He no longer opposes restitution for Japanese war crimes, and ends his political career by giving a _mea culpa_ for his country.

Many years later, the North normalizes relations with the South. I like to think it’s because we stood up to that dragon that day. That we refused to kill each other. That with our hearts we slew it in turn.

I like to think it’s as they say, that love conquers all.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so here's the story of writing this one. I had begun over a month ago, and paused, struck by a writer's block. I wrote three other tales in that time, before coming back to this one.
> 
> Originally, several months ago, I was going for a parody of Doki Doki Literature Club, but just kept stopping. Eventually, I just went with a haunted school setting and threw Twice into it. It being on Dokdo was decided early on, but the dragon was added late. I put in the light romance elements because i find it hard to write strict horror. Also, I fucking love shipping Twice!
> 
> *One more thing: I originally was going to end without that epilogue bit, with everyone about to die, but after writing so much more than I expected, I had to salvage some sort of solace ending.


End file.
